Spy

The Spy is a suave backstabbing rogue that has the ability to insta-kill any class if they backstab someone with their knife. Spies are valued in that they can position themselves as they see fit with their Cloak and can get important Picks through the manipulation and deception of the enemy team. The Spy arguably has below average direct combat ability, as he is solely designed to only get one or two kills at a time. As a pick class, the Spy will usually target the enemy Demoman, Heavy or Medic and either get the Medic to pop or drop his ÜberCharge. The Spy is also capable of incapacitating and destroying the Engineer's buildings.

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In 6v6, the Spy is considered an offclass due to his unreliable damage output and weakness. If a Spy is played he will usually only get one chance at getting a pick. Because of this, the Spy is rarely used and will most often target the enemy Medic or Demoman to get a pick worth more than his own life. A team might use a Spy when the enemy Medic has a large advantage, or to get an important pick over the enemy team and end a stalemate.

In terms of assassination power, the Spy has less potential than the Sniper, so be wary when running a Spy. A Sniper can shoot multiple times and get multiple picks, but a Spy will usually only get one chance for a pick and is almost certainly going to die after their attempt to pick someone. However, because spy is not often used in 6v6, players are generally less aware of spies, making them more likely to fall for disguises and backstabs. The Spy is commonly used as a surprise tactic for breaking stalemates against teams too wary of Snipers or Roamer bombings. However, the Spy is still largely situational and most teams will prefer a Sniper.

There are benefits to running a Spy, however. You can check the enemy Medic's Uber percentage and choice of Medigun, call surprise offclasses and where the enemy is positioned. The Spy can also be utilized for backcapping due to his cloak allowing him to traverse the map easily and undisturbed.

In Highlander, the Spy is used as a support class. He is often used to pick the enemy Medic, Heavy, Demoman, Sniper, Engineer, or any key targets that are giving his team trouble. Spies in Highlander must be aware that the enemy team has a full-time Pyro and is spychecking more often, leaving the Spy with fewer opportunities for picks.

The Spy is also the best scouting class in the game, providing invaluable information for his team. He can find how far along a Medic is to fully charge his ubercharge, where the enemy team is located, and in what direction they are moving towards in the safety provided by his watches.

When spotted or confronted by an enemy, a spy is almost always put at a disadvantage, due to his low damage output on primaries. In times of need, Spies may need to use one of the many techniques developed to deceive or lure their enemies in position for a stab that otherwise wouldn't be possible. These are called trickstabs and are often a technique highly exploited by most of the high-level spies.

Some spy players may opt in to primarily use a gun, such as the Ambassador, to snipe with. These players mainly stick behind their team's lines and focus on getting headshots to get kills. A good spy is said to be able to achieve Ambassador headshots and regular backstabs.

The Ambassador deals a base damage of 34, with a clip of 6 rounds. The Ambassador has the unique ability to take advantage of this accuracy with 102-damage headshots. After a short cooldown that is shown visually by your crosshair size, headshots and perfect accuracy are achievable. Falloff damage on the headshot makes it unviable for sniping targets out of your standard range.

The L'Etranger deals a base damage of 32, with a clip of 6 rounds. You will gain +40% cloak by having this weapon equipped. On every hit, the user gains an additional 15% cloak. Requiring full cloak to activate, the Dead Ringer can be an effective combo. It can also be used to somewhat cancel out the downsides of the Cloak and Dagger.

The Enforcer deals a base damage of 48, with a clip of 6 rounds. It has -20% firing speed, and cannot get random crits. The Enforcer is known for having the highest base damage of all revolvers with its damage boost of 20% when disguised.

The Diamondback deals a base damage of 34 and cannot get random critical hits. For every Engineer building a Spy saps and for every backstab kill, he will get one free critical hit (102 damage) for his Diamondback. This can be useful for taking out weak classes that you couldn't otherwise attack. The crits should be carefully timed and placed on players who are busy fighting others and whom your team needs assistance fighting.

The Sapper is the Spy's tool for disabling and destroying enemy engineers buildings. The stock sapper will disable an enemy building when placed, but if an enemy engineer removes the sapper, the building will continue to operate. Therefore, a more effective way of sapping for Highlander is killing the engineer before sapping. A good time for this is usually with your teams uber or kritz push.

Much like the stock sapper, the Red-Tape Recorder also disables enemy engineer's buildings. This sapper, however, does not destroy the buildings it saps, rather it reverses the construction of the building. It is banned in most leagues.

The Knife is the most powerful weapon in the Spy's arsenal. On backstab, it does 6x the enemy's current health. When hitting anywhere else besides the back it does a base damage of 40 (also called butter-knifing). Spies have the capability of getting behind the enemy lines by means of cloaking and disguising, then using the knife to backstab enemies. Though the Knife is very powerful, players must not forget that they also have a gun.

Using Your Eternal Reward removes the Spy's ability to disguise with the disguise kit. The Spy can only disguise by successfully backstabbing an enemy. Upon backstab, the Spy will immediately disguise as the victim, the victim's body will disappear without noise, and the enemy team will receive no killfeed of their teammate dying. In the competitive scene, this knife holds controversy due to the fact that without a disguise it is near impossible to get the initial backstab, and that if one manages to get the initial disguise, the victim will likely notify their team of the disguise making the next attempt even less likely.

The Spy-Cicle acts like "Pyro insurance" in that when the Spy is lit on fire, the Spy-Cicle melts and allows the Spy to become fireproof for a second and immune from afterburn for seven seconds. This is useful for keeping the Spy alive in order to find a better opportunity for a pick, but the Spy-Cicle is melted and unusable for 15 seconds, although the time can be decreased by picking up ammo boxes. Backstabbed victims are turned into ice sculptures, revealing the Spy's presence. While possibly saving the user's life, game-winning backstab attempts can be foiled by the Pyro. Users should take their play-style as well as the current status of the round into consideration before choosing this knife over the stock knife. A run-away Spy without a knife is as useless as a dead spy.

When the Conniver's Kunai is equipped, the player starts out with 70 health. On backstab, the Spy absorbs the victim's health. The maximum health the Spy can reach is 210. Upon backstab, flames can also be put out. The controversy behind this knife is whether or not starting out with 70 health is worth getting health later. It is often argued that the extra health upon a backstab does not have a significant chance of preventing death, but the reduced health before a backstab makes you significantly more likely to die to spam damage and random hits taken.

Equipping the Big Earner reduces the max health of the user by 25, lowering the Spy's overall health to 100. However, killing an enemy with this weapon, either with a backstab or regular melee attack, will fill the Cloak meter by 30%, regardless of which cloaking device is equipped, and increases the player walk speed for 3 seconds.

The default Invis Watch for Spy is timed. It provides the Spy with 9 seconds of cloak time, during which he will have a 20% damage resistance. While cloaked or uncloaked a Spy can pick up ammo boxes as well as dropped weapons to refill the cloak meter. The Invis Watch is best suited for an aggressive play style, allowing for more picks. Watch out for enemies however because bumping into them will make you visible!

The Cloak and Dagger is motion sensitive, which means that while a player isn't moving the cloak will build. This watch has a double cloak recharge rate as well as a 29% faster cloak drain rate. Also, this watch's cloak cannot be replenished by ammo boxes or dropped weapons unless uncloaked. The Cloak and Dagger is best suited for a more passive playstyle, providing the player with the ability to wait and call important things like enemy combo positioning as well as Medic ubercharge. The Cloak and Dagger is often paired with the L'Etranger in order to make up for the reduced cloak time and the lack of a way to quickly regenerate cloak.

The Dead Ringer is unique among the Spy watches. Instead of cloaking the player when deployed, it is held in the player's hand. While the Dead Ringer is out the player will not be able to attack, but the player takes reduced damage alongside with a 3-second speed boost. In addition, the player will go invisible and drop a dead body, therefore feigning death. The initial hit is reduced by 75%, and during the 3 seconds of feigning death, the spy will have a 65% damage resistance that will gradually decrease to 20%. Only for 3 seconds of the 7 seconds of cloak time the Dead Ringer provides, you will not become visible when bumping into players. The Dead Ringer is best suited for an even more aggressive play style than the Invis Watch, allowing you to get in your enemies face before feigning.